The Runesmith

‘Was that really the right decision…’

Elodia was standing outside of the adventurer guild. She wanted to hit her head against the wall after recalling what had happened not so long ago.

After having spent a whole day dealing with pesky adventurers that just didn’t understand how the prices of mana stones could change she was tired. Then a co-worker appeared out of nowhere asking her to stay a couple of hours more as she had something ‘important’ to take care of.

Elodia knew well that this was untrue and that the girl would be down at the local tavern having fun with her friends. This has not been the first time but Elodia always needed the money so she didn’t care much about the excuses. That is until a better deal arrived at her doorstep.

‘Why did I have to agree when everyone was watching...!’

She grabbed her hair while looking down on the ground while not knowing what got into her. The moment he walked over to her counter she had lost it. All the stress from this work that had been building up caused her to lose her composure for the faintest of moments.

So then she took him up on the offer while everyone watched. It would be hard to go back on her statement. The people from the guild had been there along with Solana that heard it all.

“Ms. Elodia, is everything alright?”

A manly voice that should not belong to a seventeen-year-old called out to her. There he was, the handsome Runesmith that was on the helm of her current troubles. While the offer that he was giving her was quite good she wasn’t sure if the man could deliver on the promises.

Elodia was quite aware of the debacle that he was going through with the dwarven union. In her opinion, the best move for him would be to either leave the city or find some common ground with the dwarves. No news of him ever attempting any diplomatic resolution ever reached the guild so it seemed that Wayland was quite stubborn just as the dwarves that he was going up against.

“Oh, I’m fine Mr. Wayland, glad that you waited for me to finish.”

“That’s fine, I understand that making such a decision wouldn’t be easy. I’m glad that you have decided to take me up on my offer, we can write up a proper contract in a few days, that is if you are fine with it?”

She spaced out for a moment as Wayland continued to talk. Things seemed that they were advancing rapidly and that was not something that she liked. Elodia wasn’t very prone to taking risks and while working for an aspiring runesmith could be lucrative, a steady job at the adventurer’s guild was much safer.

“Ah yes, the contract …”She paused a little bit as contracts were kind of a specialty. There was a possibility of getting a good deal but she didn’t think Wayland would go through the trouble of signing a one-sided contract that favored her.

“Great, I’ve already got one ready, I’ll give you a copy tomorrow. Then I’ll be counting on you from now Ms. Elodia.”

Soon Wayland was off to go somewhere while Elodia was left standing beside the street. It was the first time that she said no to a co-worker that was now stuck working the longer hours. The shock on the young girl's face was something new that she was not used to. While thinking about her own future she returned home to the orphanage.

As always it was quite loud and the kids were playing with some other young adults that came over from time to time. Lobelia and Armand had their own cliques that they tended to hang out with and these two were people that the half-elf knew.

“Renny, Jasper, thank you for keeping the children company.”

While she was grateful that there was some outside help, Elodia wasn’t so sure about these two young men. They seemed somewhat sketchy but Lobelia vouched for their morals so she let it be. She could only hope that they wouldn’t go down a bad road while taking a couple of her children along with them.

“Leave it to us Elodia!”

“I hope you weren’t teaching them anything strange though…”

Elodia glanced at something that looked like a lockpick in Jasper’s hand. The young man quickly moved it into his pocket while whistling.

“Don’t worry big sis, I’ll keep them in line!”

“I hope, for your sake…”

Elodia narrowed her eyes while glancing at Lobelia. These two half-beastmen were proper adventurers but she did not have the opportunity to glance at their adventure cards. Sometimes they joined Armand and Lobelia during their dungeon runs but she knew that the two were only here due to her younger sister.

“Uh… hey, I heard about the big news, are you really quitting from the guild?”

Lobelia was quick to change the topic as she was getting cornered in a spot by Elodia. It seemed that rumors were already spreading. Her younger sister had always been good at gathering information; it was as if she was doing it for a living.

“Who told you that?”

“Oh, a little bird told me~. But isn’t it great? I think working for Wayland might be a great change of pace, you have been looking tired lately… just look at those bags under your eyes, you must start taking care of yourself!”

Elodia was taken aback by Lobelia’s reply. She didn’t seem to be aware of the problems that may arise by her leaving her steady post at the adventurer's guild. Before she could bring that up, Lobelia walked over and gave her a big hug.

“Don’t worry about us or the kids, we can take care of ourselves, do what you want to do … also stop being so stiff big sis!”

The two soon parted and it became quite loud as the kids zoomed in on the adults. The kid started chasing after Lobelia while laughing. Elodia could just smile and give it to her younger sister.

She still felt responsible for this whole house but the paycheck that Wayland was offering seemed enticing. Her only gripe was the uncertainty of him lasting in this hostile environment.

“Is it true, did that bastard really propose to you?”

“What are you talking about, are you drunk again?”

After half an hour Armand decided to show his face. It was dinner time and everyone was ready to dig in. Apparently, the muscle brain had heard some rumors about Wayland proposing to Elodia in the guild and her accepting in an instant.

“I did accept but it…”

“You did? This can’t be happening … so it really was true… maybe if I get him when he isn’t wearing that blasted armor I can beat some sense into him…”

“Good luck with that, pea brain, I’d put my money on Wayland.”

“I second that.”

“Thirded.”

Renny and Jasper were still here while munching on some homemade stew. It seemed that for some reason they thought Wayland would not have much trouble in taking care of Armand.

“Why you little shits!”

“Calm down Armand, no one is getting married, Mr. Wayland just offered me a job at the new shop that he is making, nothing is set in stone and I haven’t left the guild yet!”

She had to slam her hand down on the table to break up a fight from happening. Most of the time when those two went against Armand the three ended up in a fight. The big brute always came up on top though so she was more worried about the two half-beast boys.

“Wouldn’t it be fine though?”

“Hm?”

“I’m just saying, would it be bad if you married Wayland”

“What are you even saying?”

Elodia replied to Lobelia that raised this question after finishing her meal.

“What would you want that bastard to…”

Armand raised his fist at Lobelia that just started whistling.

“What’s the problem? You do know that he is loaded, all of our problems would go out the window if big sis got together with him.”

Elodia smirked while looking at Lobelia that was at a loss for words. It looked like her little sister was mostly interested in Wayland’s monetary value and not really the person behind it.

“He isn’t bad looking, is tall and has money… hm maybe I should go for him if you aren’t interested~”

The half-elf grinned at Elodia showing off those pearly whites. It was clear that she raised this in a mocking tone but as soon as she did the two half-beast men jumped into the conversation.

“No, you mustn't!”

“Ye, you can’t do that!”

Lobelia just gave out another sigh as the people in the room started to shout at each other again. It was clear to her that her younger sister should realize the feelings of these two boys before she ever thought about marrying anyone.

She had to worry about her own future though. Her younger sister for some reason thought it was a good idea to switch professions and that Wayland would be making a lot of money in the future.

People that could create magical items were said to be able to bring in a lot of money. But most of the time they ended up contractually obligated to large conglomerates like the dwarven union and forced like her to work long hours.

Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to sign up with someone like that, he certainly looked like he was driven by something.

For one reason or another, an image of a smiling Wayland with her and the kids popped into her head. She was making some food in a large house and a pricey ring adorned one of her fingers.

“What am I even thinking about?”

She quickly shook herself back to reality and looked over to Lobelia that was egging Armand and the other two men on.

“Stop shouting and help me clean, all of you!”

………

‘Well, that went better than expected.’

Roland was back at his house and looking at a stack of papers. Since he had been employed several times and had other contracts to look through it wasn’t that hard to formulate his own.

People in this world worked a lot longer than in his previous one. No one really went with the eight-hour workday and free weekend variant here. People were lucky to even get one day off in a week.

Due to this the workforce was mostly populated by men while the women remained at home to take care of the kids. This made what Elodia was doing seem like madness as she was trying to be both the man of the house and also the mother.

Not like that was his problem, he had to focus on creating a good contract that would put too much strain on himself. Even though Elodia agreed at the moment he wasn’t so sure if she was truly convinced yet. If the contract wasn’t good enough he feared that she would go back to the guild.

“I don’t really need to keep the store running for the whole week…”

Roland felt that the market for the runic weapons wasn’t that large and that the adventurers would wait for the right product. He did not want to be stuck around his workshop for the entire week so closing for the weekend was something that he wanted to do.

In those two days, he could do other things like visit the dungeon to level up and gather more resources. With the store open he felt like he needed to remain close to the goods.

The first reason was for safety as he wasn’t sure if anyone would come to cause trouble. He could see people like the dwarven union hiring thugs to go mess up his store. Bernir on the other hand said that the dwarves would probably not do something like that.

Surprisingly his race being money-hungry as it is, despised doing things in a non-business way. While they were fine with undercutting prices, buying out land and stores of their competition they would not hire people from the thieves guild.

Roland on the other hand was now working together with the black market merchants. He had even spoken with Lobelia and her two friends if there was a way to guarantee that his business would not be targeted by higher-level thieves.

The people that attacked his home while Bernir was home alone had not been part of this thieves’ guild. They were apparently just passing by and wanted to escape before giving the guild in this town their cut.

There were actually some strange rules between these thieves. If a person from another thieves guild came to a city they would need to pay a few of their earnings to the guild in town. Of course, they could try to skip town but would be put on the blacklist and hunted down if they ever returned to the city the guild was placed in.

Not everyone agreed with the ways the thieves’ guild did their things and a lot depended on their guild master. Thus some of the thieves liked to work alone or in small groups and were seen more like bandits.

To his surprise, Lobelia mentioned that there were some ways but it would cost quite a bit. The only real way of getting proper protection from the thieves’ guild would be going and speaking with the guild master.

Due to how well that went with the other guild master Roland didn’t feel like it would be good to go speak with one that was probably a tier 3 class holder and unhinged from any specific rules against killing.

Lobelia did give him a tip to go around this without having to involve the guild master. Though it might not work, it would be good to hire someone from the thieves’ guild as protection.

They would be able to monitor what was happening in the guild and tell him if any jobs were posted to steal something from him. He was wondering if he should give some pocket change to the half-elf and maybe her two friends for that reason. Though he wasn’t sure if he could trust any of them.

‘Maybe while her big sister works here, Lobelia will be more inclined to help me out…’

With that thought, he looked at the plans of his shop. While it wasn’t that big at the moment and not that many items would fit into it at the moment, there was room for expansion. He purposely placed it at the beginning of his fence so that he could build in more sections later.

This would of course depend on his monetary gain but he hoped to add more sections to create a large store. With enough space, he could place items by a specific category, armors in one part, weapons in another, magical runic bathtubs in the other. With enough time and money, he hoped to create a proper magical store that was similar to the one he worked back in Edelgard.

While he did live outside the city boundaries this didn’t mean that he wouldn’t need to pay any taxes. Just like anyone else in the city he would need to properly register his building.

This might have sounded like a long process that required a lot of paperwork but it didn’t. There were no institutions that checked if the building was safe to work in and if there was a fire exit.

Here a business owner was only required to pay a flat sum each month that was proportional to the store size. Once per year, a person wouldn't be tasked to go over the items that were being sold and through the store's ledgers.

There was a requirement to keep records of what was being sold but it was not as detailed as it was back in his old world. While there was some leeway, most people were not crazy enough to try and cheap out on the kingdom. If it was found that a person was evading taxes and withholding information it was jail time or even death.

‘I’m glad I have someone like Elodia to help me out with that part. Hope those pesky dwarves finally leave me alone, only time will tell.’

Roland gave out a sigh while returning to his planning, when he finally got Elodia to sign this new contract he could shove some responsibilities on her shoulders as his were already somewhat buckling under the stress.